Find your cultural skin in Vikhroli

Dec 12, 2013, 08:09 IST
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Kanika Sharma

From 50-foot sculptures to live art on an actual taxi, it's time you picked a balloon with a feminist message this Saturday and witnessed a three-dimensional art as part of Vikhroli Skin, India Culture Lab's annual pop-up event

"A huge mash-up”, is the only way to describe Godrej India Culture Lab’s pop-up event, titled Vikhroli Skin, as Parmesh Shahani, head and organiser, does in a brief telephonic chat. 110 collaborators will come together to celebrate art, exchange ideas and literally create a 3D ambiance amidst a 200-thousand square feet-big warehouse.

Brahma3, the 3D printer, will be the first that the city will witness during the event

The event will string many realms of knowledge together, from science and technology to art and fashion. The key highlights include the exhibition of Brahma3, the 3D printer that will be a first in the city; creation of India’s largest walk-through 3D mural and the creation of interactive motion-based art by Aditi Kulkarni amongst innumerable others.

Gaurav Gupta’s Jatayu creation will be part of the event to stress on handmade fabrics

Science fiction comes alive Gaurang Shetty, Co-Founder / Innovation Catalyst at Research Innovation Incubation Design Labs (RiiDL), shares, “During Museum of Memories, that is India Culture Lab’s last year pop-up, we had created an interactive staircase. For this year’s idea, we decided on holographic projections and a 3D printer.” As things are underway, Shetty admits that there is a possibility that one can walk towards the projections and even ‘actuate’ holographs through hand gestures. Think, Minority Report, Amazing Spider Man or The Dark Knight, the idea of throwing up laser and light beams is electrifying. One can watch and behold miscellaneous objects such as an apple, vintage Chevrolet car, a football and a globe as they will beam from four different points inthe prism.

Aditi Kulkarni’s interactive art installation

The other exciting and much-hyped element is Brahma3, the 3D printer from which the team will be able to print out car parts as the students of KJ Somiaya, who form an integral part of the team, sought help from the Formula Car group in their college. Although Brahma3 is a bought printer, which falls under the bracket of Rs 60,000 to Rs 70,000, RiiDL soon hopes to build one of their own.

Hover over the city Aditi Kulkarni, a National Institute of Design graduate and an app developer, speaks of how interactive media forms the crux of our experience today. A diehard Mumbaikar, Kulkarni has shot the city in its various modes to compile a video that spans from day to night. “I work with interactive technology but wanted to use my Fine Arts background too,” asserts the artist who wants one to walk into a space where the video will be getting projected.

The plot thickens when, “there will be actually two projectors, alaptop and a camera. As soon as you walk in, the camera will project an image of you in the video, while one becomes a part of the work and interact with the city,” she explains. The idea is to understand how the city life affects us and is in turn, fragmented.

An art loom With a healthy dose of technology, celebrity stylist Pearl Shah will underscore human achievements through handloom designs of Aneeth Arora (Pero), Gaurav Gupta, Rahul Mishra, Sabyasachi Mukherjee, Paromita Banerjee, Aditi Holani and others. “I have worked with Rahul Mishra and Sanjay Garg where I saw how mathematically both of them were, to execute the designs by hand,” adds Shah. Hoping for this to be treated as a high art form, which she labels as actual bespoke luxury beyond high luxury brands, Shah hopes to shares her delight with people as they walk in to appreciate the designs.

Postcards in the present “We’d like to change the skin of postcards by hand drawing them,” announces 24-year-old Pavithra Dikshit, one of the triad of Postcard People. With Tosha Jagad and Poorva Shingre, these three-talented designers have already managed to paint 100 postcards. Here, one can walk in and pick a pre-existing design or request a customised one, and even post it the same time. Dikshit reminds the age-old feeling of warmth and happiness that a physical message brings which she hopes people will replicate. Not in the same league as Whatsapp or SMS, right?